Efeito de um grupo terapêutico sobre estresse, sobrecarga e habilidades sociais de cuidadores primários de crianças autistas

Abstract

The process for diagnosis and treatment of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) usually demands changes in routine of their families and/or caregivers, especially by the parents of those children. Many of those parents have high levels of caregiver burden and stress and social isolation, possibly due to the accumulation of activities related both to caring for their children with ASD, to relationships with their partners, to caring for other children, to domestic and professional activities, for example. Based on that, this study has as it’s main objective to analyze and compare the effect of two therapeutic group of analytical-behavioral approach on the levels of caregiver burden and stress and social skills of primary caregivers of children with ASD. Eight primary caregivers of children with ASD participated in the study, four of whom participated in the Group 1 and four in the Group 2. The procedure was divided in three stages: 1) Pre-test, with application of psychological instruments and a sociodemographic form; 2) Group 1, composed of 18 sessions of approximately two hours per week, being initially in space of reception and listening, in order to create an environment and a routine similar to the group 2, inserting the intervention from the 12th session, and Group 2, consisting of eight sessions of approximately two hours per week, being the therapeutic intervention from the first session, working with the variables to be analyzed; 3) Post-test, with reapplication of the instruments used in the pre-test. In the results, a possible influence of intervention on stress levels was observed, with decrease of levels and symptoms, however, in relation to the general results of caregiver burden and social skills, there was a permanence or little change in the levels in the three applications done. In this way, we find necessary to increase the number of meetings and influence of the adherence in the therapeutic process to obtain greater results in the variables caregiver burden and social skills.